Serge Gainsbourg
1928 - 1991
Melody
Jean-Christophe Averty
Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg
Although Gainsbourg and Birkin had appeared in a string of films since their magnetic collision in Pierre Grimblat’s Slogan, Melody was a bit of diversion from their collaborations since it’s a series of interwoven videos inspired by the Gainsbourgalbum. For '71 it’s a novel concept to bring visual life to an LP, but even more surprising are the short film’s amazing visuals that director Averty crafted using a wealth of video filters, overlays, camera movements and chroma key effects. Averty applies these in tandem with the increasing tone of Gainsbourg’s songs, which more or less chronicle an older man's affair with a young girl. Each song is comprised of steady, sometimes brooding poetic delivery, with refrains timed to the phrase repeats of each song, while Alan Parker’s buzzing guitar accompanies and wiggles around Gainsbourg’s resonant voice. The bass is fat and groovy, the drums easy but steady, and the periodic use of strings or rich vibrato makes this short a sultry little gem.
Melody
De Serge Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre 1958-1991
Yann Grasland, Yves Desnos
Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin
Extensive compilation of clips, interviews, TV appearances and other media excerpts that feature Serge Gainsbourg, one of France's greatest 20th century singers and artists.
De Serge Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre 1958-1991
Jane B. by Agnès V.
Agnès Varda
Jane Birkin, Jean-Pierre Léaud
The interests, obsessions, and fantasies of two singular artists converge in this inspired collaboration between Agnès Varda and her longtime friend the actor Jane Birkin. Made over the course of a year and motivated by Birkin’s fortieth birthday—a milestone she admits to some anxiety over—Jane B. by Agnès V. contrasts the private, reflective Birkin with Birkin the icon.
Jane B. by Agnès V.
L'affaire Matzneff
François Coquet
Gabriel Matzneff, Vanessa Springora
About the Gabriel Matzneff affair and pedophilia in French culture and society from the 1950s to the present day. "It was not very difficult to know who Matzneff was at the time." Vanessa Springora denounces thus, in an interview with the Parisian , the support which benefited the writer Gabriel Matzneff , in the years 1970 and 1980. The author fifties then maintains an affair with the young girl, aged 14 years. A relationship under control that the editor tells in Le Consentement (éd. Grasset), published Thursday. "After having analyzed the work " , the Paris public prosecutor's office announced Friday January 3 the opening of an investigation for "rapes committed on the person of a minor of 15 years".
L'affaire Matzneff
Anna Karina, souviens-toi
Dennis Berry
Anna Karina, Dennis Berry
Major actress of the New Wave, Anna Karina is bound to the great renewal of cinema in the 1960s. Her companion in life, Dennis Berry revisits the story of her memories with Jean-Luc Godard and the great directors she knew, her memorable meeting with Serge Gainsbourg, and also, more recently, her career as a singer. With a gaze halfway between mischief and severity, the New Wave's Danish muse embodied a new feminity – deeply linked with women's liberation.
Anna Karina, Remember
Catherine Deneuve, belle et bien là
Anne Andreu
Catherine Deneuve, Étienne Daho
Catherine Deneuve couldn’t care less about being a celebrity, but fame made her an icon long ago and she occupies a special place in our imagination. The star is not one to let others get too close, but when she gives you her confidence, she keeps her word. If Deneuve’s career covers a half-century of cinema, it also bears witness to the force of a generation that experienced the deepest transformation of mores. This portrait reflects her entirely. The story of a mystery and an adventure.
Catherine Deneuve, belle et bien là
In and Out of Fashion
William Klein
William Klein, Azzedine Alaïa
The legendary photographer William Klein has designed this fascinating book on fashion photography, with a selection of images from throughout his career, including material from his films. Though Klein claims roots in areas as diverse as painting, street photography, the tabloids, and B movies, his fashion work has been known since the fifties and sixties and has been a constant in his career.
In and Out of Fashion
Pasha
Georges Lautner
Jean Gabin, Dany Carrel
Six months before his retirement from the criminal police, inspector Joss finds his colleague Gouvion dead, in a poorly faked suicide attempt. Joss loses his temper, and investigates on his own, which leads him through the bas-fond of Paris...
Pasha
Je suis venu vous dire...
Pierre-Henry Salfati
Serge Gainsbourg
Hailed in France as a national treasure, Serge Gainsbourg was beloved both for his music and for being the country’s favorite ’enfant terrible’. This poetic documentary presents Gainsbourg entirely in his own words, accompanied by carefully selected archival footage, including musical performances and Gainsbourg’s previously unreleased personal films.
Gainsbourg by Gainsbourg: An Intimate Self Portrait
